Natural remedies to help handle Psoriasis

[Michal7]

1- Take a soak. Showering, soaking in a tub, and applying wet compresses all can rehydrate very dry skin and help soften and remove thick psoriasis scales without damaging the skin. Since thick scaling can act as a barrier to both medications and ultraviolet light, it's important to gently remove as much scale as possible. Regular soaking also helps reduce itching and redness of lesions. Keep the water tepid rather than hot (hot water can increase itching).

While soaking helps remove plaque scales, however, be aware that frequent wetting and drying also removes the skin's oils, its natural protection against moisture loss. Therefore, to get the benefits of soaking without overdrying the skin, be sure to moisturize with a heavy emollient immediately (within three minutes) after soaking, washing, or wetting your skin. I highly reccomend MammaMichal's Aromatherapy English Garden Bath Salt.


2- Moisturize. Dry skin can crack, bleed, and become infected, so it's important to keep your skin from drying out. Moisturizing not only helps prevent dry skin, it also reduces inflammation, helps maintain flexibility (dried plaques can make moving certain parts of the body difficult), helps keep psoriasis from getting worse, and makes plaque scales less noticeable. The heaviest, or greasiest, moisturizers work best at locking water into the skin -- ingredients like lactic acid seem to work best. Or you can use coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, shea butter, sweet almond oil or coca butter. Apply a moisturizer right after you step out of a bath or shower. It helps your body hold onto natural oils and water. I highly recommend you use MammaMichal's English Garden body lotion: with shea butter, virgin sweet almond oil, extra virgin olive oil, virgin jojoba oil and hemp-seed oil infused with chamomile flowers, calendula flowers and comfrey for its oil combination along with aloe vera juice and proprietary concoction of essential oils it is ideal to keep your skin well hydrated.

3- Humidify. Dry indoor air is associated with dry skin, which is bad news for psoriasis sufferers. Use a room humidifier to raise the humidity.

4- Be careful with medications. Certain medications, including antimalarials, beta blockers (such as Inderal), lithium, and others, can worsen psoriasis in some people. Be sure all of the doctors who treat you know about your skin condition, and if a current medication appears to be aggravating your psoriasis, discuss with your health care professional the possibility of a reduced dosage or alternative medication.

5- Choose soaps carefully.
Harsh soaps can dry and irritate the skin and increase itching, so opt
for a mild soap instead. Many mild, all natural soaps are available nowadaays such as goat milk soaps or shea butter-coconut oil based
soaps. And no matter what product you choose, be sure to rinse off well and then apply moisturizer immediately to prevent itching and drying.

6- Use skin products carefully. Psoriasis causes the skin to be unusually susceptible to irritating substances, so use products such as hair dyes, perms, or straighteners with caution. Use potential irritants only when your skin is relatively free of lesions, and avoid them altogether if you have open wounds.

7- Avoid injuring your skin. Even mild injuries such as sunburn, scratches, and irritation from tight clothing can cause or worsen psoriasis. Dermatologists call this psoriasis trigger "the Koebner phenomenon."

For treating existing cracked skin I highly recommend MammaMichal's Herbal Healing Salve.

Additional treatments:
Fish oil. There have been numerous studies linking the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil to improvement in psoriasis patches. The people in these studies had to take large oral doses of the supplement to show any results, but one study did find simply slathering fish oil on a psoriasis patch helped with healing.

Apply aloe. The gel from the aloe vera plant has long been known for its skin-soothing properties and for helping the skin heal from minor wounds and burns. Research in the 1990s appears to have extended the plant's repertoire of possible benefits to include clearing psoriasis plaques. If you want to try aloe, you can buy the plant itself, split open one of its leaves, and smear the gel onto the plaques. For larger areas of plaque or a more portable balm, you can instead purchase a bottle of pure aloe vera gel at many pharmacies and health-food stores.


Wishing us all Good Health! ♥

Michal

Group owner of Natural Cures and Crunchy Granola Mammas in Arizona on cafe mom